LAND RECLAMATION POLICIES IN THE UNITED STATES 
25 
Table 8, taken from the report of Fourteenth Census, gives the 
years in which the States adopted their first general drainage laws. 
Table 8. — Dates of first general laws authorizing the establishment of public 
drainage enterprises, by States. 
[Statutes authorizing merely the construction of levees, or drainage for sanitary purposes, are not included.] 
State. 
Year. 
State. 
Year. 
Michigan. 
1847 
1847 
1852 
1856 
1858 
1859 
1862 
1865 
1868 
1869 
1870 
1872 
1873 
1875 
1880 
1883 
1883 
1888 
1891 
Colorado 2 . 
1893 
Ohio 
Florida .. 
1893 
Indiana.. . . 
Kentucky... __ ... . 
1893 
South Carolina. 
Texas 
1895 
Minnfisntq. 
Utah 
1896 
Missouri. 
Mississippi 3 . . . 
1898 
Wisconsin ... .. ... 
Idaho 4 
1903 
Illinois 
Montana... . .. .. 
1905 
California, 
Oklahoma 
1905 
North Carolina . . 
Virginia 
1906 
TCansas. 
Tfinnp.ssp.fi 
1909 
Iowa. .. 
Georgia . 
1911 
Nebraska... . . . . 
Nevada ... . 
1911 
Washington ' 
Wyoming 
1911 
Oregon . . . ... . . 
Arizona.. ... . .. 
1912 
North Dakota J - 
1912 
South Dakota 1 
Alabama ... . 
1915 
Louisiana. ..... . 
West Virginia 
1917 
A rfrfWrSas 
1 These first statutes were enacted by the Territories before admission as States. 
2 A law was enacted in 1883 and repealed in 1885. 
3 A law applying only in Lee County was enacted in 1886. 
* This statute was declared unconstitutional in 1912, and a new law was enacted in 1913. 
Prior to the dates given in Table 8, many districts were provided 
for by special acts, and there are still many special-act districts, 
particularly in Arkansas, California, and Florida, 8 created either 
because the general law did not seem to apply or because the pro- 
moters of the projects deemed it easier to secure special legislation 
than to adapt their plans to the general laws. 
The census report shows that there are many shades of difference 
between the drainage laws of the various States, but that there are, 
in general, two principal types of organizational) The corporate 
district, which is organized by the land owners under public super- 
vision; and (2) the county drain, which is established and con- 
structed as any other local improvement, and managed by county 
officials. 
On January 1, 1920, drainage districts and county drains repre- 
sented 96 per cent of all the land included in organized drainage en- 
terprises. A part of the remaining land was served by township 
drains, which are similar to county drains except that they are con- 
trolled by township officials; and a part by State drains, which are 
controlled by States officials. 
It is almost universally true, therefore, that the cost of drainage 
is met by assessments against the land benefited. Usually the laws 
provide that districts may be organized only when the benefits will 
exceed the cost. Both cost and benefits are estimated, and usually 
there is a tendency to underestimate cost and over-estimate benefits, 
but generally benefits have exceeded costs. 
The census report referred to gives the areas included in all organ- 
ized drainage enterprises in 1920 as shown in Table 9. 
8 Reports of Fourteenth Census of the United States, Vol. VII, p. 354. 
